The Women And War Reader

Women play many roles during wartime. This compelling study brings together the work of foremost scholars on women and war to address questions of ethnicity, women and the war complex, peacemaking, motherhood, and more. It leaves behind outdated arguments about militarist men and pacifist women, while still recognizing differences in men's and women's relationships to war. .

Women play many roles during wartime. This compelling study brings together the work of foremost scholars on women and war to address questions of ethnicity, women and the war complex, peacemaking, motherhood, and more. It leaves behind outdated arguments about militarist men and pacifist women, while still recognizing differences in men's and women's relationships to war. .

Where are the women? In traditional historical and scholarly accounts of the making and fighting of wars, women are often nowhere to be seen. With few exceptions, war stories are told as if men were the only ones who plan, fight, are injured by, and negotiate ends to wars. As the pages of this book tell, though, those accounts are far from complete. Women can be found at every turn in the (gendered) phenomena of war. Women have participated in the making, fighting, and concluding of wars throughout history, and their participation is only increasing at the turn of the 21st century. Women experience war in multiple ways: as soldiers, as fighters, as civilians, as caregivers, as sex workers, as sexual slaves, refugees and internally displaced persons, as anti-war activists, as community peace-builders, and more. This book at once provides a glimpse into where women are in war, and gives readers the tools to understood women’s (told and untold) war experiences in the greater context of the gendered nature of global social and political life.

Demonstrates that women are taking on increasingly less traditional roles during war, and that these roles are multifaceted, complicated and sometimes contradictory. Reveals that women's requirements during times of war will continue to be inadequate so long as we continue silencing the differing perspectives. Australian editors.

"Originally published in Russian as U voiny--ne zhenskoe lietiso by Mastatskaya Litaratura, Minsk, in 1985. Originally published in English as War's unwomanly face by Progress Publishers, Moscow, in 1988"--Title page verso.

Explores what and how women of widely differing cultures have read through the ages, from Cro-Magnon caves to the digital readers of today, drawing distinctions between male and female readers and detailing how female literacy has been suppressed in some parts of the world.

In this groundbreaking work, which covers thousands of years and spans the globe, Linda Grant De Pauw depicts women as victims and as warriors; as nurses, spies, sex workers, and wives and mothers of soldiers; as warrior queens leading armies into battle; and as baggage carriers marching in the rear. Beginning with the earliest archaeological evidence of warfare and ending with the dozens of wars in progress today, Battle Cries and Lullabies demonstrates that warfare has always and everywhere involved women. Following an introductory chapter on the questions raised about women’s participation in warfare, the book presents a documented, chronological survey linked to familiar models of military history. De Pauw provides historical context for current public policy debates over the role of women in the military. "Whether one applauds or deplores their presence and their actions, women have always been part of war. To ignore this fact grossly distorts our understanding of human history."

Women everywhere have long struggled for recognition as equal, productive members of society, worthy of taking part in the political process. These struggles become even more pronounced in times of conflict and war, when the symbolism and myths of womanhood are used to stoke nationalistic ideas about the survival of the state. Yet for all the rhetoric that takes place in their name, it’s men who generally make decisions regarding war. Women and War examines how women respond to situations of conflict. Drawing on both traditional and feminist international relations theory, it explores the roles that women play before, during and after a conflict, how they spur and respond to nationalist and social movements, and how conceptions of gender are deeply intertwined with ideas about citizenship and the state. As Kaufman and Williams show, women do more than respond to conflict situations; they are active agents in their own right shaping political and historical processes. Their conclusions encourage us to rethink the prevalent assumptions of international relations, history and feminist scholarship and theory.